CHAMPCAR/CART: Houston: Bridgestone race report

Bourdais Drives to Victory in Champ Car's Return to Houston
Reigning series champion Sebastien Bourdais made it two-for-two in 2006,
driving a steady race and avoiding mistakes to win tonight in Champ
Car's return to Houston. The Newman/Haas ...

Bourdais Drives to Victory in Champ Car's Return to Houston

Reigning series champion Sebastien Bourdais made it two-for-two in 2006,
driving a steady race and avoiding mistakes to win tonight in Champ
Car's return to Houston. The Newman/Haas Racing driver held off
Forsythe Championship Racing teammates Paul Tracy and Mario Dominguez to
collect the 18th victory of his four-season Champ Car career.

Bourdais, married a week ago in his hometown of Le Mans, France, showed a
preference this weekend for the standard-specification Bridgestone
Potenza race tires used, not the higher-grip Potenza alternate tires.
Bourdais opted for the black-sidewalled standard Potenzas in two of three
stints during the race, including the final run when he kept the charging
Tracy and Dominguez at bay.

* From Sebastien Bourdais, McDonald's Ford/Lola/Bridgestone, on the
performance of the Bridgestone tires: "Very good, I mean, I
didn't see any tire wear myself. Great grip, great race, fantastic
Bridgestone tires. They even made it through the donuts. It can't
get any better than that!"

* Bridgestone Tire Performance Summary: Bridgestone Motorsport brought
its newest version soft standard-spec street-course tire this weekend
(used previously only at San Jose in 2005) and paired it with the
softer-compound alternate tire used last month at Long Beach. The
higher-grip compounds were necessary to negotiate the tight, bumpy
circuit in Houston. Each car received seven sets of standard-spec and two
sets of alternate-spec tires this weekend

* From Joe Barbieri, Manager, Bridgestone Motorsport: "Sebastien
drove a nearly flawless race over a treacherous new circuit and added
another race win to his growing career total. Tonight, he relied on the
standard specification Bridgestone tires to do the most work for him, and
the Potenzas responded as usual. While grip was difficult to maintain for
all the drivers on the bumpy track, Sebastien kept it between the walls
and also clocked the only race lap of more than 101 mph. We were pleased
to see the return of night racing and the return of Champ Car to Houston.
As expected, the new venue presented some challenges for everyone in the
paddock, but overall we're impressed with the event and are eager
to come back in 2007."